De Witts!"

"Halloa!" cried the jailer, recovering his senses, "who is talking of
those rogues, those wretches, those villains, the De Witts?"

"Don't be angry, my good man," said Cornelius, with his good-tempered
smile, "the worst thing for a fracture is excitement, by which the blood
is heated."

Thereupon, he said in an undertone to Rosa--

"My child, I am innocent, and I shall await my trial with tranquillity
and an easy mind."

"Hush," said Rosa.

"Why hush?"

"My father must not suppose that we have been talking to each other."

"What harm would that do?"

"What harm? He would never allow me to come here any more," said Rosa.

Cornelius received this innocent confidence with a smile; he felt as if
a ray of good fortune were shining on his path.

"Now, then, what are you chattering there together about?" said Gryphus,
rising and supporting his right arm with his left.

"Nothing," said Rosa; "the doctor is explaining to me what diet you are
to keep."

"Diet, diet for me? Well, my fine girl, I shall put you on diet too."

"On what diet, my father?"

"Never to go to the cells of the prisoners, and, if ever you should
happen to go, to leave them as soon as possible. Come, off with me, lead
the way, and be quick."

Rosa and Cornelius exchanged glances.

That of Rosa tried to express,--

"There, you see?"

That of Cornelius said,--

"Let it be as the Lord wills."

Chapter 11. Cornelius van Baerle's Will

Rosa had not been mistaken; the judges came on the following day to the
Buytenhof, and proceeded with the trial of Cornelius van Baerle. The
examination, however, did not last long, it having appeared on evidence
that Cornelius had kept at his house that fatal correspondence of the
brothers De Witt with France.

He did not deny it.

The only point about which there seemed any difficulty was whether this
correspondence had been intrusted to him by his godfather, Cornelius de
Witt.

But as, since the death of those two martyrs, Van Baerle had no longer
any reason for withholding the truth, he not only did not deny that the
parcel had been delivered to him by Cornelius de Witt himself, but he
also stated all the circumstances under which it was done.

This confession involved the godson in the crime of the godfather;
manifest complicity being considered to exist between Cornelius de Witt
and Cornelius van Baerle.

The honest doctor did not confine himself to this avowal, but told